Railroads are generally constructed of a pair of elongated, substantially parallel rails, which are coupled to a plurality of laterally extending ties via metal tie plates and spikes and/or spring clip fasteners. After construction railroads may require regular maintenance. When maintaining a railroad, track workers often need to work around and between the rails. Thus, it is important to have robust roadway worker protection systems to promote worker safety. For example, a shunt device may be mounted on two running rails of a work zone to form a close circuit between the two rails. If properly installed, the shunt device may indicate the close-circuit status to an operations control center (OCC). The OCC may detect the shunt device by treating it as a train, which also creates a short circuit between two rails. Thus, the shunt device may prevent railcars or locomotives from entering an occupied work area.
Existing shunt devices may be secured onto two running rails by clamp-type devices. However, a shunt device may not always be operational after its installation. For example, a shunt device may not be correctly clamped onto the rails, or an onsite worker may trip on a wire on the shunt device and disconnect it from the rails. Despite the possibility of a faulty connection or other error, onsite workers often assume that a shunt device would be operational once installed. In existing shunt devices, there may be no alert or warning if a shunt device is removed without authorization, which creates a potential safety hazard to onsite workers. Accordingly, it is desirable to improve functions of rail-mounted shunt devices for increased safety.